Heather Mac Donald and Dennis Prager argue that outdoor COVID transmission is essentially nonexistent and mask mandates are state coercion. Prager takes hydroxychloroquine and zinc weekly and attends events mask-free. Both say the pandemic's health impact is tiny compared to other risks and that societies should return to normal without fear-driven policies.
The state is using our bodies, is inscribing its power on our bodies, the way Foucault said the pre-modern state did with torture, to convey its message. We become the message of the state, which says, be afraid, be very afraid. There is no outdoor transmission Period. Infection requires close contact in a confined indoor space.
For a prolonged period and very close to one another. 10 to 30 minutes with one person who is talking right into your face for that period of time indoors, and then you might get the infection.
That's it. 15 minutes. The CDC contact tracing guidelines isn't even interested in you unless you've been in 15 minutes of prolonged contact. These fleeting encounters outdoors with circulating air— viral dose matters. Fresh air absolutely makes it impossible to contact the virus. And yet this message— we say wear masks in public. It is— it is convenient.
I don't wear one. We have— I live in— I work in Glendale. Not too far from where you are right now. That's where the radio station is. I don't wear a mask here in Glendale. I could get a $400 fine the first time. I still, I will pay $400 and go to court rather than succumb to becoming a walking billboard of institutionalized fear because I follow the science, whereas Glendale doesn't.
That's absolutely right. And I actually think that the conservatives have made a mistake in resting their opposition opposition to outdoor mask wearing on sheer libertarian—
That's right. It's all science. I'm totally following this.
If there were strong evidence of strong infection possibility outdoors, I think that there are legitimate grounds for the state power for the common good. So I'll reluctantly wear masks indoors. But I'm not gonna do it outdoors.
Well, I just, I will tell you, a couple of weeks ago, I spoke in Chicago and I had a meet and greet beforehand and I must have shaken hands and on occasion hugged about 50 strangers and maskless. And I am totally at peace with that. And in part because I take hydroxychloroquine every week. With zinc. So I'm cheating.
Well, I just got back from a conference in Vail at the Steamboat Institute. Same thing. It never— it doesn't even occur to me. I think even with this fake phony second wave, the risk to any individual is still minute given the size of this country.
That's right.
The number of cases, the number of deaths we had is still a minute fraction of anything else that Americans put up with. I'm yearning for the leader who will get up and say, yes, there will be more death. That's right. That's right. Everything— get over it.
That's correct.
Move on with your lives.
We lost the exact same number in 2020 terms, 1968 to 1970. Not one store closed, not one mask was worn. Americans understood viruses come, it is a tragedy, that is part of life. Cancer comes, that is a tragedy, it is part of life. You don't wreck hundreds of millions of people's lives around the world, billions around the world, because of a virus. You just don't do that.
And yet our mantra now is that we heard from Governor, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, at the early stage of this, if we save just one life, everything will be worth it. That remains our public policy. You cannot, as you say, Dennis, that is not how human society functions.
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